


The Airplane Thing

by GayvinFree



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Flying, Hybrid!AU, Wingfic, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 17:30:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1826371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayvinFree/pseuds/GayvinFree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"When you fly...do you just lift clear off the ground or do you do the airplane thing?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Airplane Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to do a hybrid!au with Roosterteeth. Mixed things up a bit with who is what, so you won't be seeing the typical cat!Michael, rabbit!Ray etc.   
> First completed RT fic!  
> *streamers fall from the sky*  
> Rated teen and up for Michael's mouth

A silence had settled over the room. Michael sat back awkwardly in his chair, and proceeded to stretch, his arms reaching in the air and his spine cracking slightly. 

His wings stretched as well, held straight out over the back of his chair, black and white speckled feathers quivering and a few bits of down floating gently to the floor. 

Michael was the third Achievement Hunter to become a hybrid. Gavin, Jack, and Ryan still had yet to grow any sort of animalistic qualities. They did not seem to have much of a wish to, after being told of the painful process that entailed sprouting wings or ears or a tail. Ray had been the first, coming into work after a full three days of sick leave with a monkey's prehensile tail. 

"Hey guys! I'm Sun Wukong," Ray joked but his eyes were tired, his every move done gingerly.

All around the world people were being turned to hybrids after an extraterrestrial virus from a meteorite hitting a stable mutated and spread. 

There had been talk of the virus being deadly, then after it was scientifically proven it mysteriously did nothing harmful except for mutating humans into chimera-like beings, that theory died down. 

Then came the whispers, that those who had grown scales, claws, and wings had sold their souls to the devil. Some extremist groups even targeted new hybrids as prey, and massacres and tragedy swept the middle east for a month before the situation was under control. 

It was an unpopular opinion after all the violence that came from it, but some still believed. 

Fear led some hybrids to beg doctors to remove their new appendages. New ears were clipped down to nubs, wings and tails removed completely. This became illegal after protests against parents forcing their children into surgery. 

Hybrids were a minority in the world that no one knew just what to do with. No one was sure if everyone would end up becoming one at some point. The animal that a person became seemed to be random, having nothing to do with someone's personality or preferences. A headstrong individual could easily end up with a mouse's tail and a shy one could mutate into a lion hybrid. 

Everything was uncertain at this point and hybrids were advised to keep their heads down until all chances of hate crimes against them could be sorted out. 

Unfortunately for those at Roosterteeth, keeping their heads down was not an option. Their jobs depended on being in the public eye, and if they vanished? People could just as easily deduce what had become of them. There was little point in trying to avoid the facts. 

Sooner of later most -if not all of them- would end up as something different and they couldn't hide from that. 

\---

The weekend after Ray returned with his tail and newfound love for fruit and legumes Geoff mentioned not feeling well. Headache, fever, pains in his limbs. Ray took him aside near the end of work to explain what he felt during the process of becoming a hybrid and Geoff drove home with a dazed look in his eyes. 

The next few days were not kind to the gent. 

What he got out of the illness and the migraines were a pair of pointy ears and a fluffy tail. 

Out of all things Geoff had become a german shepherd, which in retrospect wasn't nearly as unexpected as Ray's animal side. 

The most recent was Michael, who had only returned the morning of June 24th after being gone all weekend and a few days after that as well. The 26 year old now bore the wings of a spotted towhee, a sparrow that often migrated to Texas during the winter, poking through holes roughly cut into the back of a Team Lads tee shirt. Gavin seemed particularly fascinated with the wings, eyes flitting towards Michael often throughout the day. They filmed a Let's Play and Gavin was called out several times just for not paying attention. Ryan remarked the brit seemed to almost be in a trance, mesmerised by Michael's wings. 

Michael grew tired fast of Gavin's eyes hot on his back and his rapid fire questions about what exactly it was like to have wings. By lunchtime Michael was ignoring Gavin completely. 

That is, until Gavin took advantage of Michael having headphones in by sneaking up behind him and touching a hand to sleek feathers. 

Michael whirled around in his chair, ripping his headphones off and glaring at Gavin. "What the fuck do you want now?"

"I just wanted to know," Gavin paused. "When you fly...do you just lift clear off the ground or do you do the airplane thing?"

He could sense Geoff and Jack staring at him and Michael. Ray was gone out to lunch and Ryan was at home taking care of his kid who had recently sprouted the horns of a cow. 

Michael sputtered. "I don't know! I've never tried to fly before. Should I go jump off the roof and let you know? And what the fuck is 'the airplane thing'?"

"Airplanes have to go real fast down a runway to gain enough speed to go in the air, right? So do would you have to do that or could you just spread your wings and fly away?"

Michael was quiet for a moment but when he opened his mouth to speak, Geoff beat him to words. His eyes shining with amusement and dog ears twitching he asked a single question.

"Why don't we find out?"

Jack helpfully chimed in. "Couldn't hurt to try."

\---

Which was how Michael ended up standing in the parking lot of the new office, experimentally flapping his wings a few times. "I bet I can't even get off the goddamn ground."

Lindsay was filming the entire debacle, rabbit ears flopped over against her forehead. She yelled words of encouragement to Michael such as "all bird hybrids can fly I promise," and "if you die I'm giving your Fluttershy figure to Ray."

There was now a small group of people gathered around Michael ready to see if he could manage flying or not. He was the first bird hybrid in the company and everyone was curious about how Michael would fare, Gavin most of all. 

Michael took a deep breath and tried to flap his wings has he had seen some birds do when they lifted off the ground. 

Nothing. 

He even tried jumping a few times and that did nothing as well. 

"Well this is abso-fucking-lutely dumb," he muttered, still in the middle of a crowd of his coworkers. 

"Do the airplane thing," Gavin stage-whispered. 

Michael turned and nearly hit Geoff in the face with a few pinion feathers. If you listened very closely a soft apology could be heard before he nodded and motioned for a few people to move over. 

"I'm going to do the godforsaken airplane thing, if only to shut Gavin up," and with that Michael spread his wings again and took off running down the parking lot. He was clearly struggling to gain speed due to the air resistance his wings were causing but he managed a quick sprint and in the blink of an eye Michael was nearly ten metres in the air.

For a few seconds anyway. 

As soon as his feet were off the ground Michael began to flap his wings wildly and it was clear he wasn't all too sure what he was doing. He frantically tried to even out but it was clear he wasn't going to stay up for long. It only took a moment for him to fall downwards and do an impromptu somersault onto the concrete. 

Gavin got to Michael first, trying to help him up whilst babbling about how amazing what just transpired was. "I told you the airplane thing would work."

"You suck," Michael was grinning, wings flexing as if raring to have another go. His jeans had a hole ripped in one knee and his hands were scraped, but his eyes seemed brighter than they had all day. "Let's try this again."


End file.
